MARTY BASHES UBER BILL
Mayor Martin J. Walsh called the state Senate’s passage of a controversial ride-hailing bill “disappointing” yesterday and said he would continue to press for changes that would give Boston the ability to regulate the booming industry.
“I’d love to see some changes. ... We had some amendments that weren’t accepted by the Senate. I’m disappointed by that,” Walsh said. “But we’re going to continue to work and see if we get a better bill. Again, we regulate our own taxi services in Boston. I don’t understand the reason for not allowing Boston to have more regulations, seeing that we double in size every day. We have 4 million trips a month in our city. Most of the Uber rides and carsharing happen in the city of Boston. So most of the revenue raised from that will be happening in the city of Boston, and I’d like to have the ability, more discretion, over what happens in the city.”
Last week the Senate voted 34-2 in favor of the bill, which would require cars to pass inspections and drivers to have insurance and pass company and state background checks.
The measure would not, however, subject drivers to fingerprinting, a provision that Uber had strongly opposed and state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry (DBoston) had pushed for, saying it was necessary to ensure public safety.
“You don’t even need fingerprinting,” Walsh said. “You just need to be able to police and policy some of the backgrounds you want to do. That’s one of the things we want to make sure we can do. I know (police) Commissioner (William B.) Evans is a very strong advocate of fingerprinting. I’m looking at it a little differently in the sense that I want to make sure we have good background checks. If fingerprinting is ultimately the way we go, then we go that way. But we want to have that option.”
Unlike the House bill, the Senate plan allows ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft to pick up and drop off at Logan International Airport and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. And its passage puts the companies in a much stronger position heading into a crucial conference committee.
The mayor said he had reached out to the Senate before their vote, but “didn’t hear back.”
“I think that when we’re doing a bill that affects the city, I think that the leadership needs to have a conversation with us,” Walsh said. “It needs to have a conversation with me. ... I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to get a bill — a better bill — for the city.”